Don’t Stoop to Their Level

March 6, 2025February 28, 2025 Jennifred Jones

My mother said this many times to me growing up.

Somebody’d do something to me I didn’t like, call me names, write something bad about me, and I’d start to get mad and envision how I’d set the record straight – fight back – whatever I felt like to get even. Mom would hear me talking or see me thinking and say, “Don’t stoop to their level.”

Yes, why should I become like and do like what the other person did to me that I didn’t like? Sounds so basic but in a tiff, we can’t often see straight.

Personally, I think we need to shed a whole lot of the victim-hood mentality and stand up and be the bigger and better person. Be the example of how a good person responds to insult and berating. Be the example of how to go ahead with your life and make it a better life because of what you went through! Why not? Why shouldn’t you take the upper hand in your life? Why should you succumb to somebody else’s poor mouth and decisions? Of course it hurt, it was perhaps cruel, but we’re not in the eye for eye, tooth for tooth group. We’ve moved past that. I know it sounds tough, but it takes personal toughness to be the better person, and inside that’s really who we want to be.

Yes, we can triumph in adversity, see beauty in ugliness, and become peaceful in the storm. and it won’t always be easy, but we can learn and do it – little by little.

Let’s be the beacon on the hilltop – not fighting in the mud with accusers.

Step out of the mud. Don’t stoop to their level. That’s not who you are.

Avoid Rejection

March 5, 2025February 28, 2025 Jennifred Jones

Volunteer! Who would’ve thought?!

98% (my guesstimate) of stuff that needs to be done could be done by volunteer effort!

‘I don’t know what to do with my life.’ Everywhere I apply for a job I get rejected.’ ‘Every idea I suggest gets shot down.’ ‘Woe is me.’

Yet there is a whole array of work that needs to get done. Ideas that need to be thought about and worked on. So, get started! Volunteer – somewhere, anywhere, no other people needed to tell you what to do or when to start or quit. You’re on your own schedule! You set the pace and before you know it you’ll be talking with people who see you doing useful things and they’ll ask questions etc. In the meantime, you’re developing skills, keeping your mind sharp while thinking of better ways to help and do stuff. Go somewhere and say, ‘Hey, what can I do to help out here?’ ‘I know how to do this and that…’ You’d be surprised the reaction you’ll get. Begin there and go back again to help, and again and again. People will remember your good work.

All you are doing is being a helpful human being helping other human beings. Take a brief survey of your area, where you live, where you shop, your downtown, shelters, parks and so forth and go ‘sign up’ to volunteer.

My daughter-in-law says, ‘the world is your oyster’ …and there are many undiscovered pearls waiting to be uncovered. Get out your broom or rake or gardening gloves or wash rags and look for ‘work’. You will find plenty to do and your sense of satisfaction will be huge!

Don’t let these opportunities go to waste. Volunteers are wanted everywhere!

I Am a Model

March 4, 2025February 27, 2025 Jennifred Jones

Today I am modeling…

Many people want to be noticed, remembered, looked up to, thought important…maybe even become a model!

They don’t know it, but they already are! We’re all modeling something every moment of every day to somebody, to nobody, to ourselves…what do they (we) see? Is it something we’d be happy to see, something we want to see, something we’re proud of? Is it even something we really want to model or are we only modeling what others (or we think others) want us to?

These are deep questions to ponder. All my growing up years on into college, I was in constant inner turmoil. Do I look good? What will others think? Do my clothes look right, am I stylish, is my hair okay, my glasses on straight, am I too skinny? I was a self-conscious wreck!! Finally at 21 I learned it was okay to be who I was. I looked okay in my homemade clothes (I was too tall for most dresses and pants), I was born with curly hair, that’s just the way I was made and my glasses helped me see better and being skinny I could be more active. So there!

But before that revelation, I was modeling shyness, insecurity, inferiority, self-consciousness, not really any fun to be around. I wasn’t happy to see me, I wasn’t proud of myself and was all wrapped up in myself so I couldn’t think about anybody else! Crazy how that works! (It was all me, myself and I)

A new mindset had to be formed where thoughts of others and their needs became important to me. What a relief to not be so self-consumed! There was freedom to think new thoughts, find new interests, make new friends, try new things and go different places. There would always be someone fun to meet and talk to.

How about you? Are you modeling who you are or want to be, or are you modeling what you think others will want to see?

Only flip the switch inside of you and you’ll become the something new.